


In the Dawn

by Megatraven



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Fluff, Hugging, Late Night Conversations, Promises, Touching, light kissing, thank yous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:42:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27996228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megatraven/pseuds/Megatraven
Summary: Almost without thinking about it, he reaches a hand out in the space between them. It’s still a shock, when her hand reaches out, too, and actually touches his. She’s warm, her hands callused from playing the piano, and he can’t help but squeeze his fingers over hers.She’s looking at their hands as she squeezes back, and it pushes the words he wants to say out of his throat before he can even think to hold them back.“You make me feel alive again.”
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 10
Kudos: 172





	In the Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> I can't stop listening to Unsaid Emily and Stand Tall, and also I can't stop rewatching the entire season. I'm in too deep. So I had to write a fic for my favorite pair, Luke and Julie! :D

At the end of the night, as the adrenaline from playing the Orpheum and watching her friends be saved begins to seep from her body, Julie lays down in her bed, willing her mind to take a moment to rest and recover from everything.

She closes her eyes, pulls her blanket up over her, and waits for sleep to find her.

Only, it doesn’t.

Minutes pass like hours, she tosses and turns, and it becomes obvious very quickly that she won’t be sleeping for some time yet.

With a sigh, she gets up and puts her mother’s old Sunset Curve CD on, takes out the sweater she’d worn to meet Luke’s parents, and curls back up in her bed. The fabric is soft, and somehow, it still smells like her. Breathing in deeply, she lets the scent- and the music- wash over her.

She becomes so lost in them both that she almost misses the subtle knock at her door. 

It’s probably Carlos with more questions- because, yeah, she had to deal with those as soon as she went back inside, too. Her little brother knows about the boys’ secret, but she knows she can trust him.

“Come in,” she says, loud enough for her voice to carry over the music.

The door opens, and-

It’s Luke.

Sitting up in surprise, Julie quickly smiles at him, her cheeks growing a little warm as she remembers the way his hands felt in her own. It was such a shock, but probably the next best surprise to finding that she wasn’t losing her friends- her _family_ \- after all.

“Hey,” he says, coming into the room and shutting the door.

“Hey.” She settles back against her pillows, and gestures for him to sit at the end of her bed. “You could’ve just walked through the door, you know.”

He smiles at that, a little. “Yeah, I know.”

He doesn’t say anything more than that, taking her offer and sitting down at the foot of her bed. His head nods alongside the beat of his old band’s music, and he looks over the room, eyes picking up on all the little things Julie keeps.

The quiet stretches between them, save for the music, but it’s comfortable.

When Luke finally brings his gaze back to Julie, he finds her already looking at him. The ghost of a heartbeat stutters in his chest, an echo of what it used to be, but still there.

“Luke, I-”

“Julie-”

They both stop and freeze before bursting into laughter. 

“Okay, okay, you first,” Julie says with a grin, hugging the sweater to her chest and watching him with bright, earnest eyes.

There’s no air for him to breathe, but he knows that if there were, the way she looks at him would steal it all from his lungs.

As it is, he still needs a moment to recover before he continues on.

“I wanted to thank you. For tonight, and- everything else.”

Almost without thinking about it, he reaches a hand out in the space between them. It’s still a shock, when her hand reaches out, too, and actually touches his. She’s warm, her hands callused from playing the piano, and he can’t help but squeeze his fingers over hers.

She’s looking at their hands as she squeezes back, and it pushes the words he wants to say out of his throat before he can even think to hold them back.

“You make me feel alive again.”

There’s a sharp inhale of breath from her, eyes snapping back up to meet his.

He thinks he might have overstepped a bit, and he starts thinking of some way to backpedal, or apologize, but he doesn’t have to do either before Julie launches herself at him in a hug, letting the sweater slide from her fingers.

“Woah!” he laughs, nearly falling off the bed with her. He barely manages to keep their balance, and then he wraps his arms around her, too.

She buries her head in the crook of his neck, and smiles against his skin, and it’s a miracle, he thinks, that he can feel it all. She inhales deeply, just like she’d done with her mother’s sweater, finding a faint scent still clinging to him, too. He smells like the city at night, something light and airy, and maybe a little like hot dogs.

Luke, though, rests his head on her shoulder, her hair tickling his nose in a way he doesn’t really mind. Her curls bounce lightly when she shifts, and a sweet, private smile blossoms across his face.

When she speaks again, it’s quiet, and so personal that it makes him hold on to her even tighter, chasing her warmth and the beat of her heart with every ‘breath’ he takes.

“You make me feel alive again, too.”

And for an instant, he remembers back to when he first met her, to how much pain she was in and how she’d given up on her passion because it became too much to bear. Thinking of her now- how she was playing with them at the Orpheum, so in her element, _okay_ \- fills him with pride.

She’s come so far- all of them have, but Julie...

Well. She’s still got a whole life ahead of her, and he’s just glad that, for now, he gets to watch her shine.

They stay holding one another, reveling in what it feels like to touch, long enough that the music loops back to the first song on its track.

Where Julie is warm, Luke is cool. It’s soothing, she thinks, and sinks further into their embrace. Every racing thought that kept her mind from finding sleep begins to ease up, Luke’s presence a sort of balm to her.

Her eyes begin to slide shut, her breathing slowing just so, and her hold on Luke starts to loosen.

“Okay, Julie... you should get some rest,” Luke murmurs, voice soft and sweet.

He tries to pull her arms away from him, so he can help her lay back down, but she resists, moving so her head rests against his chest. She mumbles something he can’t quite make out, and he shakes his head fondly.

“I’ll be in the garage with the guys in the morning, so don’t worry. Okay?”

Her grip on him tightens, though, and he has to fight the urge to laugh. It isn’t hard to do, not when she shifts again, and her lips press _just so_ against the skin exposed by the collar of his shirt. Warm breath makes him tremble, and he can feel as her lips move, ever so slightly, in a kiss.

“Don’t go...” she says, the words etching their way onto the surface of his heart.

How could he ever deny her that?”

So he gives up on trying to move her away from him, and moves them both instead, so that they’re laying down together. He watches her for a long moment, and he’s sure she’s asleep by the time he answers her.

“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right here with you. I promise.”

Pulling the blanket up over them both, he places a soft, lingering kiss on her forehead, and closes his eyes.

He may not sleep anymore, but there’s no doubt just then, that there, in Julie’s arms, it’s the closest he’ll ever come to that peaceful feeling. 

Content for the first time in a long while, Luke rests there in her arms, listening to the sound of her heartbeat mix with his old music, and smiles.

When the morning comes, he’ll still be there.

And it will be the dawn of the first day that he keeps his promise to her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> If you'd like to request something, feel free to send an ask on tumblr @megatraven!


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